The present invention is intended as an improvement to key control systems in electronic locks. Currently, the process of adding and deleting valid keys in an electronic lock system requires a supervisor, serviceman, or someone of higher position than a “normal” user to go to the lock to perform the manipulation. Once this person is at the lock they can either (1) show a “supervisor” key which will allow other keys to be added or deleted, (2) show a “programming” key which will allow other keys to be added or deleted, or (3) connect to the lock through a computer which will update the lock's memory. As previously stated, each of these methods requires someone in a management position to visit each lock that needs to be updated. If, as in the vending machine industry, there are hundreds of machines (locks) that need to be maintained, this process can be quite expensive and time consuming.
Further, in currently available electronic lock systems, each lock keeps track of the keys that were presented to it, valid and invalid. A manager may then go to the lock and upload (into a computer) the keys that were presented to the lock. This is commonly called an “audit trail”. If a supervisor needed to know which locks a key has been taken to, the supervisor would need to visit each lock that the key could be taken to, and upload each machine's audit trail. As noted above, the cost associated with a manager visiting each machine is quite high.
There are other currently available systems that will allow remote database manipulation and audit trail gathering. These systems require either expensive integral call phone technology, or an expensive hard wired network system.
A need for a system exists that will allow user database manipulation and audit trail gathering automatically, cost effectively, and without requiring managers to visit locks periodically.
Some examples of current electronic lock systems include U.S. Pat. Nos.: 4,916,443; 5,475,375; 4,988,987; 4,947,163; 4,887,292; and 4,766,746. The entire disclosure of these six United States patents are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety for all purposes.